Over 15 years after the horrific 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is now focusing on a key player who had allegedly met Tahawwur Rana in Dubai prior to the attack. This man, sources reveal, was privy to the impending assault prior to its execution.
Rana, a 64-year-old Pakistani-Canadian businessman and friend of convicted plotter David Coleman Headley, is now in New Delhi high-security detention after his long-awaited extradition from the US. NIA officials are hopeful that questioning Rana could lead to crucial details about the so-called “Dubai connection” to one of India’s most notorious terrorist attacks.
The Mysterious Dubai Meeting
The identity of the person Rana had met in Dubai still remains unrevealed, but the documents received by U.S. investigating agencies state that the individual possessed intelligence regarding the plans of the attack. The NIA is currently following both the identity and the role of the individual.
According to NIA sources, Headley, also referred to as Daood Gilani, had warned Rana as early as 2008 against a visit to India, indicating terror activities were imminent. Headley supposedly got Rana to Dubai to meet up with another co-conspirator who testified the attack was imminent.
Investigations are underway to determine whether this individual was associated with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the intelligence arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces, or a senior member of the Pakistani Army or the head of a designated terrorist group operating from Pakistan.
Interestingly, his identity has remained closely guarded, even among the top-shelf counter-terror networks. The investigators are suspecting Rana may have let his name slip during earlier rounds of interrogation with the U.S. authorities, whose secret reports are now accessible to Indian officials.
Another component of the investigation concerns a key decision by Rana and Headley in November 2008: neither of them extended the lease on an office in Mumbai operated under cover of Rana’s immigration consultancy. The office is believed to have served as a cover for Headley’s reconnaissance of possible targets, such as prominent hotels and public areas.
Earlier interrogations revealed that in August 2005, Headley briefed Rana on LeT’s plan to use him for reconnaissance in India, and suggested that Rana’s immigration business would be a proper cover for doing so.
Headley, being his Western features and American passport, was allowed to move about anywhere in Mumbai, scouting for high-profile targets, videotaping, and relaying the inputs to his Pakistani masters.
The NIA has stated that the tactics employed in the Mumbai attack might have been part of an overarching plan to execute similar strikes in other cities of India. Rana’s movement history is currently being investigated.
Between November 13 and 21, 2008, Rana had visited some of India’s major cities like Hapur, Agra, Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai with his wife. Investigators are investigating whether these visits were reconnaissance missions for future attacks.
Previously, the NIA named some of the suspects in the broader conspiracy, including Hafiz Saeed, the founder of LeT; Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, operational commander of LeT; and several others involved in masterminding and executing the Mumbai attack.
Rana and Headley, who had attended military school together in Pakistan, went on to become business associates in the immigration consultancy business that officials allege was a cover for terrorist operations.
Now Rana is held in a safe cell at the NIA head office in Delhi with armed guards always monitoring him. He is medically checked each day, and he is permitted to meet his legal advisor every other day, but under guard.
The Director General of NIA Sadanand Vasant Date has a personal experience with the 2008 attacks as he was injured in the attack while tending to attackers Ajmal Kasab and Abu Ismail at Cama Hospital.
